Fantastic Fun! Free walking around seeing Art Galleries u would normally have to pay…read morefor.Complimentry beverages.Peds only

If you are into fun times then First Thursday is not something you want to miss whether you are a…read moreseasoned Oregonian, a pretentious Portlander or just here for a visit. The numerous art galleries in the Pearl District open their doors so anyone can venture in and view the art for free. Many of the cool shops and salons also stay open late to welcome visitors. There's usually a complimentary glass of wine and some hors d'œuvres involved with all these visits as well. One of my favorite artists Buzz Siler recently moved his studio to NW 20th and Vaughn...a little off the beaten path but worth visiting because he's awesome. Prem Group Property Management always participates by having a party in its basement. For a $5.00 donation that goes to a local charity you get to enjoy free wine, beer, food and a DJ. Party-on Prem! And if you don't know about the parties at the stately and gorgeous US Customs Building hosted by WeWork, you've really been missing out. You have to RSVP for free entry but access to this amazing building is a privilege and did I mention open bar and a variety of food? Just don't forget to tip the folks serving you. 13th Avenue between NW Hoyt and NW Kearney are closed to vehicle traffic so you can wander from various artists booths that are set up on each side of the street. I've seen some incredibly talented artists and amazingly affordable art along this route. First Thursday is a tradition in its 31st year and just keeps getting better. 2015 - Review # 50

A hidden little gem…read more.. err...long, high GEM Definitely a local secret. The Skybridge connects OHSU University South Hospital and the VA Hospital. One of the best spots in PDX to get a brilliant view of the surrounding area and Mt. Hood as well. I definitely spilled the beans on this one...damn tourists! ;-) Hitch a ride on the Portland Aerial Tram for $5 to the top while enjoying the scenery and peaking into peoples backyards...lol, then take a walk across the bridge and enjoy all the beady of PDX! As of this review, there is no cost to walk across the VA Skybridge nor to enter OHSU or the VA Hospital. Just remember, not a whole lot to see on a cloudy day... You won't regret it!

The Skybridge between OHSU University South Hospital and the VA Hospital is a godsend for patient…read morecare. There are tunnels in the basement once used for patient transportation dating back to 1919, but one wrong turn and who knows where you could end up. I once ended up in the old psych ward after a wrong turn. The old whirlpool baths (with the arm restraints and canvas covers) would have worked quite nicely in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I beat cleats to get back out of there - nightmarish enough to make the hairs on my arms stand up. Yikes. The "new" VA Hospital was built in 1988 followed by the Skybridge in 1993. The Skybridge is really very nicely done, but I don't have words to describe it, so I've attached a picture from the VA website to give you an idea. There are house phones at frequent intervals throughout the Skybridge (super handy if you walk over from the VA to the main campus and have to sign in to the OHSU Payroll Time system and not be counted as late to work). There are also benches throughout in case the walk is too long (660 feet). I really hope you wouldn't have to use them,, but if so there are first aid stations available up and down the length of the Skybridge. What's fun, if you will, is how much employees and visitors use it for recreation. Patients are wheeled across in wheelchairs or just cruise along getting exercise after surgery or prolonged bedrest. They want you up and out of bed as soon as possible to regain strength and to prevent DVTs, and of course it's far nicer to walk in a light-filled space with a dynamite view of Portland. I walked with my stepmom back and forth across the Skybridge while she was in the hospital for three months after her liver transplant. If you walk across when it's cloudy or foggy, it looks like the Emerald City from Wizard of Oz (and spectacular when it snows). Employees come and use it in bad weather to "mall walk" for exercise. I once thought it would be a great idea to sit on one of the benches and eat lunch and take in the view. I do not recommend this. The Skybridge is essentially a suspension bridge that sways back and forth during wind and any other movement and is probably one of the most secure places anywhere here in Earthquake Country. I myself did not fare well because the bridge is in almost constant movement; my stomach did not appreciate the constant movement whilst eating lunch, so I had to get the hell out of dodge before lunch and I parted ways. I never ate there again. OHSU and VAMC are so lucky to have a link like this for patient transportation and even recreation. It's faster to be sure and so much more cheerful and attractive. It makes all the difference in the world for everybody. Now all I have left to do is ride the aerial tram between the Old Campus and the newer South Waterfront and my OHSU experience will be pretty complete!

The Willamette River is a heck of a river. I ride next to it almost every single day. It's…read morebeautiful and has lots of sexy bridges. Roughly 187 miles long, it is home to a plethora of wildlife including but not limited to: 31 native species of fish, beavers, river otters , snakes (EEK) and more birds than you can shake a stick at! Also notably the longest river in the United States to flow in a northward direction. Oh how lucky we are to have this beautiful body of water in our daily lives. Three cheers to you Willamette River, hip hip Hooray! Hip hip Hooray! Hip hip Hooray!

Portland is "Bridge City" and the Willamette river is the rive all those bridges cross. It is a…read morefocal point if the City. The river is beautiful .... and the continual trips up and down the river by the Sternwheeler, Portland Spirit and all the dragon boaters is so Portland. During Christmas time the lighted/decorated Christmas ships is something I always look forward to. Love it! There have been some concerns in the past few years that it is becoming more contaminated and I know there are talks of how to clean it up and stop the continuation of the contamination. There are a few parks that are located on the shores of this prominent river and Willamette Park is one of them that also has a boat ramp. The sailing school is close by as well. Roll on Willamette!

As of this review I am a member of the Sacred Land Alliance collective that resides on Tryon Life…read moreCommunity farm . I have lived here since 2018. I am an Indigenous woman from a reservation in Northern Arizona. I am writing this review for POC and specifically Indigenous people who are considering joining the Cedar Moon Collective. I have voiced to CM how they have harmed previous POC and Indigenous people who were members of their collective and past members of SLA. My collective (SLA) and specifically myself have asked them to enact restorative justice and give up the power that Cedar Moon as a collective yields over this land project. As of writing this review nothing is being done to actually practice Land Back and equity between the dominant collective and Sacred Land Alliance. There is opportunity for CM to operate in good relation with the current Indigenous people on the land and the Indigenous community of Portland rather than tokenize and recruit Indigenous people who are experiencing housing insecurity in order to be able to triangulate us against each other. The use of brown people to maintain power over this land project and to deflect the accountability that is currently being asked is a colonial tactic of conquer and divide. If CM is asking you to be a part of their collective without making introductions to the current indigenous family who resides here; that should be a red flag and it's intentional. I am willing to have a conversation about my lived experience and the harms I have witnessed the dominant collective perpetrate against POC with anymore who is willing to to hear me out. Come see me.

Did you know that in 2004 seven acres of gorgeous land abutting the Tryon Creek State Park was…read moresaved from overdevelopment? Did you know that if you live on or near Portland, OR or believe in ecosystem remediation and integration you fit into the Tryon Creek Farm definition of "Community?" This is YOUR farm peeps! AND you are more than invited to come visit, work and share in the pleasure of dirt under your nails most every weekend. One Sunday a month they have a tea and tour (call for details.) If it has been WAY too long since you scratched the horns of a Nubian goat, consider yourself informed. They gots Nubian goats out there. You can't hear the traffic, there are some innovative structures to oggle (esp that cob oven) and you can view a permaculture garden from the soil up. This intentional community of adults and children is doing their best to bring this land back to Eden. They are having some issues along the way, the wetland is beat up and is causing some probs in their waste water and sewer strategies, but that makes it real. It takes time to clean up what has been fallow for years. Oregon is (in)famous for its hippies. Come out and hang out with some delicious ones. And I am not just referring to the garden edibles.

Good morning at the Portland GoBy Streetcar Sign. A must do visit and selfie! Love spending time in…read moremy town - Portland!

This sign is just a sign. Not! It's a subliminal message! Uh-uh! It's an explicit PDX reality! Yes,…read morein deed! This sign is a constant reminder---it's high time to permanently park our gas guzzling, pollution spewing, steel and glass bubbles at the curb. Or just sell it to someone in WA or CA. Get on the streetcar! 10 years ago, five years, even 2 years ago traffic moved freely un-noticed past the "GO BY STREETCAR" neon sign at Lovejoy and 11th. Today --- every day it's bumper-to-bumper in rush hour --- gridlock in the Pearl. I am guessing that the Pearl District has doubled, tripled, quadrupled ... in high-rise construction over the past decade. Lot's of the gas guzzler's are hard hat workers blazing in and out of town, along with shop's, galleries and eateries personnel and tourists. Lot's ride a bike --- hooray for us! Of course, more people with more cars are living in our more and more high-rise's. Goodness! Where do we go? How should we go? We GO BY STREETCAR! I'm just saying! Let's GO BY STREETCAR!

Located in the Holladay Fountain in Holladay Park this is one of a three part series of sculptures…read morein the park by Tad Savinar. Placed in the park in 2000 it is a small Bronze. This statue is of woman gardener holding gardening shears. She is based on local neighborhood activist Carolyn Marks-Bax who was chosen by the neighborhood association as the model.

Drive by Colonel Summers park on Belmont on the right day or a few other select Portland spots…read morewhere hipsters are likely to converge in the pursuit of alternative leisure and you'll catch a glimpse of America's newest and most insane sport--Bicycle Jousting. Mostly driven by riders of tall bikes (think someone who has welded an extra bike frame on top of their already tall bike) the bike jousts run like what you would imagine bike jousts to be. Two guys hurtling at each other carrying long poles usually with something soft on the end--a pillow or stuffed animal. What's especially interesting is that unlike their Medieval predecessors, these jousters aren't competing for territorial dominance but rather just for the fun of it. I'm sure that Bike Jousting is sweeping the nation but I like to think of it as being particularly Portland. And just a little bit crazy.

Mountains to Metro is a fantastic wine event. Last year (its first year) the event was called Pinot…read morein the Pearl, and was a fun way to get face to face with a ton of tiny wineries from the Chehalem Mountains AVA - a new AVA that encompasses all 3 types of Oregon's famous Pinot-bearing soil as well as some great elevation changes. The wines from this region are distinct from their cousins in Dundee and have their own flair. This year (2011) was year two for the event. I was a sponsor on last year's event so I didn't think it proper to write a review, but this year as a guest (although I would have paid the $40 in a heartbeat) I am detached enough to be able to come on Yelp and gush about this goodness. Mountains to Metro brought a ton of amazing Chehalem Mountains AVA wines together under the gorgeous roof of the Governor Hotel, and provided guests with a Riedel Oregon Pinot glass, a bag for wine purchases, and 4 hours of free wine tasting reign. Access to all of the wines for tasting was free, but some wineries also offered bottles for sale. The amount of wine one could consume here (if even possible) would greatly outpace what a respectable human being could consume in a 4 hour period. And $40 wouldn't get you a fraction of this tasting power in the tasting rooms themselves, let alone local restaurants, if you can find them, that is. Many of the wines presented are tiny labels. 100 cases here, 200 cases there, brand new labels... many are small operations. But most all of the wines show off the care of an artisan's touch. Many are craft wines but you can tell they have big futures. And to be able to taste so many back-to-back is pretty fantastic. There are some bites offered by the likes of Davis St. Tavern, Aquariva, Fratelli, Jake's, Thirst, Oba and more. Not a ton of food, mind you, but some fun samples. And tasty (props to DST's pea soup and Fratelli's chicken liver pate). To anyone considering a venture next year I would say that, as you should with any shotgun tasting like this, have some starch before you head in. I hope this event carries forward for many years. As this AVA gains the recognition it deserves, I'm sure these wines will only stay accessible to us hoi polloi for so long.